If there’s one thing we know about how the US government operates, it’s that the American people are often the last to know[2] about serious problems that may be taking place behind the scenes.

This week, in a move that has spooked a lot of economic and financial analysts, President Barack Obama held a special, closed door meeting[3] with the heads of the U.S. government’s financial, monetary and oversight agencies. It included members of the Federal Reserve, the FDIC, the CFTC, the SEC, and the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

This has left many wondering what is really going on – and if a serious event is about to take place yet again.

I guess I’m always unnerved as a result of what happened in April, the last time the President of the United States had a meeting with all of the bank heads, and two days later the price of gold was smashed for over $200.

Now, the President is meeting with all of the heads of the various agencies, institutions, the Fed, and all of the other key money entities in the United States today. What’s that all about?

But clearly if the President is having this meeting, there is a crisis unfolding somewhere in the background, and it could very well relate to the dollar, interest rates, and the massive derivatives market associated with interest rates…

…

This surge in interest rates may have already seriously destabilized the entire financial system, and that’s why there is this meeting taking place in the White House today. The fact is that the vast majority of derivatives in the global financial system are related to interest rates.

Now, the entire financial system may be on the precipice of some sort of catastrophic event unfolding because of what we have already seen in the bond market, and how the derivatives are so heavily intertwined. Meaning, we may be on the verge of another disastrous derivatives meltdown.

Ahead of the 2008 collapse, as the pillars of our financial system were undergoing a controlled detonation[6], the Chairman of the Federal Reserve assured us[7] the crisis had been contained. Experts and pundits on television were screaming to investors[8] that everything was fine and to keep buying the dips.

Behind the scenes, however, President Bush, the Federal Reserve, and the world’s leading financial institutions were scrambling to figure out how to keep the whole thing from falling apart. As former US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson noted, we were on the brink of a historic collapse[9], and they knew it well ahead of time.

The American people were not as fortunate. Most of us came to the realization things had taken a turn for the worse only after 50% of our wealth had been wiped out in a stock market and housing crash.